"I love you." Poets, playwrights and songwriters have been grasping for new ways to say those three little words for centuries.

When someone gets it right, it's magic. Frankly we've always been partial to the way it unfolds on the silver screen. When you get a great movie line about love, delivered by a gifted actor in the perfect setting, maybe in front of a spectacular backdrop, maybe with powerful music playing that stirs our emotions, there's nothing better.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, we offer an offbeat but quotable sampling of what makes movie love the best.

"Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back.... There's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all."

-- Anthony Hopkins, Meet Joe Black (1998)

"Love is too weak a word for what I feel. I luuurve you, you know. I loave you. I luff you -- two F's, yes, I have to invent."

-- Woody Allen, Annie Hall (1977)

"Love is the morning and the evening star."

-- Burt Lancaster, Elmer Gantry (1960)

"I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night."

-- Billy Crystal, When Harry Met Sally (1989)

"I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

-- Robert Duvall, Apocalypse Now (1979)

"I've loved you since the first moment I saw you. I guess maybe I've even loved you before I saw you."

-- Montgomery Clift, A Place in the Sun (1951)

"I love you. And not in a friendly way, although I think we're great friends. And not in a misplaced-affection, puppy-dog way, although I'm sure that's what you'll call it. I love you. Very simple, very truly. You are the epitome of everything I have ever looked for in another human being."

-- Ben Affleck, Chasing Amy (1997)

"I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."

-- Julia Roberts, Notting Hill (1999)

"I gave her my heart. She gave me a pen."

-- John Cusack, Say Anything ... (1989)

"I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone."

-- Liv Tyler, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

"Love don't make things nice. It ruins everything. It breaks your heart. It makes things a mess. We aren't here to make things perfect. The snowflakes are perfect. The stars are perfect. Not us. Not us! We are here to ruin ourselves and to break our hearts and love the wrong people and die."

-- Nicolas Cage, Moonstruck (1987)

"I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw. I'm scared of what I did, of who I am. And most of all, I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."

-- Jennifer Grey, Dirty Dancing (1987)

"There are millions of people in this world, but in the end it all comes down to one."

-- Kirsten Dunst, Crazy/Beautiful (2001)

"With all my heart, I still love the man I killed!"

-- Bette Davis, The Letter (1940)

"You make me want to be a better man."

-- Jack Nicholson, As Good As It Gets (1997)

"You can't help who you love.... You're not supposed to."

-- Kerry Washington, Save the Last Dance (2001)

"A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."

-- Gloria Stuart, Titanic (1997)

"You complete me."

-- Tom Cruise, Jerry Maguire (1996)

"You're the only boy who makes my heart beat faster and slower at the same time."

-- Rachel McAdams, The Hot Chick (2002)

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."